Council’s recycling strategy creates jobs

Councillor Ian Cochrane, portfolio holder for sustainability and environment shows the two new bins that have been introduced, in front of one day's worth of recycling collections (roughly 50 tonnes).

Published:12:05Thursday 27 June 2019

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Seven new jobs have been created at South Ayrshire Council as part of the authority’s recycling programme.

Since March this year, when the final phase of the council’s new waste collection model was rolled out, 57,000 homes now have a four weekly plastics, metals and cartons collection, a four weekly paper and card collection, a three weekly non recyclable waste collection, a six weekly glass collection, a four weekly garden waste collection and a weekly food waste collection.

When they voted in favour of the new waste collection service in October 2017, councillors were made aware of the need for extra staff for it to operate efficiently. The cost of the new posts are being met from budget reductions of £186,000 and from third party payments.

The new roles are three drivers, three refuse collectors, and one recycling transfer station attendant.

The new waste collection model was introduced after South Ayrshire Council signed up to the Household Recycling Charter in 2016. The Charter is linked to the Code of Practice for Household Recycling in Scotland which aims to bring more consistency to recycling service provision across Scotland.

An earlier analysis by South Ayrshire Council over an eight month period showed around 60% of the general waste collected could have been recycled, which would have saved them almost £2m. Over the next seven years the council has to increase its recycling rate by 20 per cent and the introduction of the additional two bins per household was the start of the process.

Every household was given a leaflet explaining what goes in which bin when the scheme was introduced in their area.

Green bins for general non-recyleable waste are emptied every three weeks; silver bins for food waste emptied weekly; blue bins for metals, plastics and cartons emptied every four weeks; grey bins for paper and card emptied every four weeks; black bins for glass emptied every six weeks; and the brown recycle bin for garden waste emptied every four weeks during the gardening season.